1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to weatherproof enclosures for electrical equipment and, more particularly, to easily accessible, automatically opening enclosures for outside plant telephone electronics.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is becoming increasingly necessary to place electronic equipment in locations remote from the telephone central office in order to accommodate newly designed electronic carrier systems. One such system, in which digital carrier techniques are used to provide up to 96 telephone subscriber channels on two pairs of conductors, is disclosed in the copending application of S. J. Brolin et al., Ser. No. 97,699, filed Nov. 27, 1979. In such a system, one terminal of the carrier system is located at the central office. The other terminal, however, is located remotely from the central office in an area near to the subscriber group being served. In such a case, the remote terminal equipment must be housed in a weatherproof enclosure which is nonetheless easily accessible by service personnel attempting to service the terminal equipment.
Prior art enclosures for electronic gear have usually comprised cabinets mounted on telephone poles or on concrete slabs with hinged door access to the electronic equipment. Such arrangements, while suitable in many ways, require weatherproof seals for all access doors. Moreover, such cabinets are not always appealing from an aesthetic point of view.
A further problem with remotely located equipment cabinets is the desirability of being able to access the electronic equipment from all sides. That is, some service requests require access to a cross-connect field in order to change or add subscriber connections. Other service requests, however, require access to the electronic equipment itself, normally taking the form of printed circuit boards which must be inserted and removed. In effect, then, it would be desirable if access could be had to all sides of the electronic gear within the enclosure. A cabinet with doors is not easily amenable to such a requirement.